


Love Petals

by SkylerSA



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Hanahaki Disease, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 15:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19154185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylerSA/pseuds/SkylerSA
Summary: ~• Human, Highschool & Hanahaki AU •~Kiku Honda, a 16-year-old sophomore, is afraid of love. He shuts himself away to avoid falling for anyone. It's not because he's shy or just prefers to be alone. It's because of a curse that has been in his family's bloodline for centuries.The hanahaki disease.A disease caused by one-sided love which infects the lungs and windpipe with beautiful, yet painful, flowers and can only be truly cured when the love is returned.





	1. Chapter 1 - Reunited

It's was the first day of grade 10, lunchtime, and Kiku was walking down the school hallways. His eyes were on the floor in front of him while in search of his best friends, Ludwig and Feliciano. It was quite a difficult task to do so while trying not to face anyone he didn't need to, so in reality, he was really wishing that they'd find him.

His wish was granted when he heard Feliciano yell his name from across the hallway. Kiku sighed in relief when Feliciano ran up to him with Ludwig not far behind. "Ciao Kiku! God, it's been a whole summer since we've seen each other! C'mon! I saved us a table at the cafeteria with Antonio and Lovino." And before Kiku could reply, he was taken by the hand and stumbling behind the excited Italian who was quickly running to the cafeteria.

"Hello everyone." Kiku greeted as they approached the table. "Oh hey Kiku! How was your summer?" Kiku smiled at Antonio and walked around the table to go sit beside Feliciano. "Mine was good, how about you?" he asked, continuing the conversation. Antonio smirked. "Oh, ours was great. Right, Lovi~?" Antonio smugly said while placing his hand on top of Lovino's, causing Lovino to turn a bright red colour on his cheeks. "Awh, you look like a little tomato." Antonio continued. "Sh-Shut it, bastard!" Lovino retorted.

After Kiku sat down, he noticed he forgot to take out his bento box from his locker. He internally groaned and was about to stand up to go get it when Ludwig sat down and passed him the box. Kiku smiled at Ludwig "Arigato Ludwig, but how did you-?" Ludwig sighed before vaguely returning the smile. "I've been with Feliciano all summer. He'll give you next to no time to grab your belongings when he wants to go somewhere. He can be a bit of an airhead sometimes." Feliciano blushed slightly, puffed out his cheeks and humphed. "Hey!" Ludwig blushed a bit as well and laughed at Feliciano's reaction.

Kiku felt a pang of jealousy towards the two different couples sitting at the table with him. Kiku knows that they'll never know how lucky they are to be able to love someone without any extreme consequences. However, for Kiku, things were different. He had developed a fear of falling in love due to a curse that has been in his family for generations.

He was cursed to develop the hanahaki disease if he were to ever develop a one-sided crush on someone.

At first, he didn't believe his mother's stories of family members falling in love and developing this disease. That is, until his cousin, Leon, started coughing up flower petals when he fell in love with some Icelandic student. But thankfully for Leon, his love was returned not long after and he didn't have to go through the painful stages of the disease. But the thought still scared him. For if you have the disease for too long, you'll eventually die. There is another option in which you can choose to go under an operation to have the flowers removed from your lungs, but in return, it leaves you unable to love ever again, and in Kiku's opinion, that would be a fate worse than death.

He was soon snapped out of his worrisome thoughts when a loud voice approached the table. "Heya Ludwig! I was wondering if you've seen Mattie around or something. He was with your brother last time I saw him." Kiku looked up and instantly recognized the boy. He was Alfred F. Jones. Kiku had known him in grade 1. They used to go to the same elementary school as each other but eventually separated into two different middle schools. But now, as fate would seem to have it, they both went to the same high school. 'How did I not bump into him the year before in grade 9?' He thought, a bit confused.

"I think I saw them outside on the bleachers." Ludwig answered. The American smiled his signature smile before nodding "Alright thank you. Also, it's nice to see you again Ludwig and Feli, Antonio and Lovino and-..." Kiku kind of just awkwardly sat there while Alfred stared at him with a confused look on his face. That gave Kiku time to go over all of Alfred's features. His eyes were a beautiful ocean blue, his hair neatly combed aside from that one cowlick that never seems to want to stay down. Kiku remembered always being fascinated by Alfred's cowlick when he was younger. His skin looked smooth with barely noticeable freckles spread out around his nose, his face looked kind of cute with that confused expression. Kiku was snapped out of his trance once again by the American suddenly shouting.

"Kiku? Is that really you?! Holy crap it's been years! How're you doing?" The American sat down beside him, seemingly forgetting his search for his younger brother, and Alfred placed his arm around Kiku shoulders in a rougher manner than he intended. "E-Eek!" Kiku made a little noise of surprise before quietly answering Alfred's question. "O-Oh. I'm doing fine..."

Feliciano looked at the two, surprised. "You two know each other?!" Alfred laughed at Feliciano's question. "Why of course! We went to the same elementary school when we were younger. In grade 1 when he moved here. Got separated in middle school or some jazz like that." Alfred stood up and smiled again. "Anyways got to go find Mattie, I'll see you later, okay Keeks?" Kiku was a bit flustered by the use of his childhood nickname and just nodded slowly, still feeling a bit uncomfortable.

As Alfred left the cafeteria, Antonio smirked. "So you two were friends in elementary school?" Kiku stared at his bento box, trying to avoid all eye contact as he mumbled a small "Hai." Seeing Kiku being this timid when answering Antonio's question made Feliciano have an excited look on his face as if his suspicions were correct. "So, um, do you like hi-" Before Feliciano could finish, he was cut off by Kiku, who was now speaking in an unusually stern voice. "Feliciano, please. Don't."

Feliciano and Antonio gave their significant other a confused look to which they replied with a simple shrug. Kiku sighed, knowing he'd have to tell them sooner or later. Besides, this is high school, the place where dramatic love blossoms. Whether it be figuratively or literally. He looked up from his bento box and looked at the four. "Um. I..." No. He couldn't tell them about his secret. They didn't need to know. Not now at least. He didn't want pity and he wasn't sure that they'd believe him. Besides, the only place you'd find examples of this disease is in angsty and pining fanfiction. "Never mind." And with that, he opened up his box, grabbing his pair of chopsticks from his bag and began eating without another word for the rest of the lunch hour.

When the end of lunch bell rang Kiku felt relieved to be away from the loud cafeteria. That is until he looked at his timetable. Instantly, he felt the weight in his stomach return. Of course he had gym class with Alfred. Thankfully, it was the only class he had with Alfred, at least for this semester. He started walking in the direction of the gym with a heavy heart. God, he did not want to be in the same class as the guy he used to have a minor crush on when they were younger. Kiku always suspected that flowers didn't grow in his lungs when he was younger because Alfred returned the feelings and that they both kind of knew about their crush on each other. But things have changed since then. Alfred is now a teenager and probably has a girlfriend or boyfriend or something. When Kiku snapped out of his thoughts and looked up, he realized that he was already at the gymnasium.

He went inside the gym and walked to the changing rooms and quickly changed into a pair of fresh gym clothes. He was glad to be the only one inside right now. He was rather uncomfortable with changing in front of others and the changing rooms didn't have stalls like they did in middle school. Once finished, Kiku instantly sped walked out of there before anyone else could come in. He went to the back of the gym and sat down on one of the benches and took out his sketchbook, starting to draw while waiting for class to begin.

The only time Kiku looked up from his sketchbook is when Alfred entered the gym and went to the changing rooms and not long after reappearing from the changing room in different clothes as well. 'That shirt really makes his muscles show- wha-? No what am I thinking?! Be quiet Kiku, you don't care.' Kiku blushed and faced back down at his art book, making sure not to make eye contact. He sighed with relief as Alfred went to go sit beside a boy who was already ready on another bench as well and looked similar to Alfred's. 'Must be his brother. His full name is Matthew, from what I remember. But Alfred always called him either Mattie or Mat. He was always much quieter than Alfred. Wait why do I remember this?' he thought to himself as he continued to draw.

Eventually class started and everyone started to run laps. Kiku was starting to calm down again. But that didn't last long as Alfred approached him, brushing his shoulder as he started running beside Kiku, causing him to blush a bit. "Hey there Kiku! Isn't it awesome that we have gym together?" Kiku stifled a cough as he tried to hide the light blush. "Ah. Yes of course." Is all he managed to awkwardly reply with. They ran side by side quietly for a few minutes before Alfred broke the awkward silence. "So, uh, I was wondering if you'd like to come to my house after school or something. We totally need to catch up and what not. I mean, it has been over 4 years since last time we've seen each other."

Kiku almost tripped on the air when Alfred offered the invite to his house. He really wanted to decline the offer, but at the same time, he didn't want to come off as rude after 4 years. "Uhh, sure." Kiku mumbled. Alfred pumped his fist in the air before cheerfully exclaiming, "Alright, I'll drive you there right after school. I don't think Matthew and Gilbert will be sucking each other's faces after school and my boyfriend won't be coming over tonight so the house will be totally PG."

Suddenly a quiet voice from behind interrupted their conversation. "Alfred, I heard that." Both Alfred and Kiku turned their heads around in surprise. "Oh hey, Mattie! When did you get behind us?" Matthew frowned slightly "I was here the whole time." Alfred laughed loudly. "Geez, you're a quiet one, aren't-cha?" Matthew rolled his eyes. "Quit talking to me as if I am a puppy." And that's when Kiku slowed down, not only because it was a perfect opportunity to escape Alfred, but also because he was starting to run out of breath. 'Hm? That's strange.' He thought as he put his hands over his chest which was unusually tight. 'I can normally last longer than this. Maybe it's because I haven't run much since I got back from my visit to Japan over the summer?' He shrugged and sat back down and pulled his art book back out from under the bench.

For the rest of the gym period, Kiku decided to sit down and draw. The teacher thankfully wasn't too strict today and let the class do whatever they please after they ran for at least ten minutes. Kiku's mind slowly wandered back to his conversation with Alfred. More particularly the fact that he had a boyfriend. Not a girlfriend, a boyfriend. Not that Kiku was judging or anything. It was just good to know. 'So he still swings that way, huh.' He thought absentmindedly, a smile creeping up on his face. He soon snapped out of it though, stopping himself from going any further with the thought. He shouldn't care about it and he decided that he doesn't.

When the bell rang, he quickly changed and spent the rest of the day nervously waiting to go to Alfred's house. When the time came, Alfred walked up to him, it was as if he couldn't breathe. 'What the hell is wrong with you Kiku, it's just Alfred.' he scolded himself as Alfred waved him over by the doors. "Come on let's go! We'll have a great time." Kiku took a deep breath and quickly went on over to Alfred, gripping the strap of his bag around his shoulder a lot tighter than necessary. "Alright."

They both started to walk to Alfred's car in the parking lot, side by side. Kiku's heart racing, but his face calm and normal. He was glad he was able to hide his emotions well. It helped a lot in uncomfortable situations. Once they approached Alfred car, Alfred walked to the left-hand side door and unlocked it, getting inside, Kiku slowly entering the car beside Alfred.

"Please be careful with anything inside. This is my mom's old car and she'd kill me if I got a single scratch on it. I guess this car meant a lot to her? But I think she needs to calm down." Alfred explained while turning the key in the ignition, starting the engine. Kiku nodded in response and started to daydream as they drove down the streets of the town.

But his daydreaming didn't last long as they pulled up to Alfred's house. Kiku blinked a few times and looked around at the house. Memories of coming here in elementary school suddenly re-emerged in his mind. His stomach fluttered at the memories of him playing tag with Alfred and his brother and watching cartoons side by side, talking about their friendship, playing the Wii and the GameCube and other random things. They both got out of the car and Alfred unlocked the door to the house.

Everything looked the same from how Kiku remembered it except for some  
furniture that was either new, thrown away or was moved around. He hung his coat on the hook by the door and took off his shoes. He grabbed out a pair of slippers from his bag and put them on. Even though Kiku has been in America for the majority of his life, he still feels uncomfortable when not following basic Japanese traditions.

"Heh. You still have your slippers? Wow, it's like nothing changed. Anyways let's go play on the Wii! And yes I still have the same Wii from when we were younger, surprisingly it still works. So does my GameCube." Alfred exclaimed as he grabbed Kiku's hand and lead him to his bedroom. Kiku looked around. Alfred's room was painted a dark blue. An American flag was hanging above his bed along with a few other posters of people that Kiku didn't recognize except for the one Naruto poster above the TV across the bed. There was also a desk with papers and other random stuff on top of it, his dresser of clothes beside it.

The bed squeaked as Alfred sat down on it. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV and Wii on, motioning Kiku to come to sit beside him. Kiku grabbed the Wii-motes from the desk, passing one to Alfred and sat down on the bed. "How about some good ol' fashioned Mario Kart? Maybe this time I'll be able to beat you." The last part of that sentence was mumbled, but just loud enough so that Kiku could hear. This made Kiku laugh. "Try me."

After a few races, it was clear that Kiku was still was the master of Mario Kart and was basically unbeatable. After a few more attempts at beating him, Alfred finally gave up. "Well... How about we watch some horror movies?" Kiku perked up at the mention of that. He nodded and pulled out a horror movie from his bag. Before Alfred could ask why the hell he had a horror movie in his bag, Kiku interrupted him. "Don't ask why. Just go with it." He said sternly as he put the disc into the movie player.

Already 20 minutes into the movie, Alfred was clinging onto a blushing Kiku for dear life. Kiku felt quite uncomfortable, like always, with physical contact, but he just went along with it. A few minutes later, Kiku was released from Alfred's death grasp as Alfred received a phone call. Alfred pulled his phone out of his pant pocket and checked the caller ID. "Oh, sorry I have to take this." He said as he stood up and walked to the corner of the room. "Oh hey, babe. What's up?"

At those words, Kiku felt a sudden pang of jealousy, and he didn't know why. He felt as if breathing had become a difficult task. Then it hit him. If it was anyone else, it would be pushed aside as the feeling of jealousy, love, a crush. But this was Kiku. His face paled as he suddenly felt a choking sensation in his chest.

He suddenly stood up and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He placed his hands on the counter, resting himself over the sink. That's when he started coughing. And coughing. And coughing until the chocking sensation disappeared as well as he felt something rise to his mouth and spat whatever it was into the sink. When he looked down at what it was, he was horrified.

Sakura- cherry blossom -petals.

This explained why he couldn't breathe normally throughout certain periods of the day, especially when around Alfred. His stomach dropped as he heard a knock on the bathroom door and he heard Alfred from the other side. "Yo, Keeks. You alright...?" He quickly grabbed the petals from the sink, wrapped them into a piece of kleenex and then threw it out into the garbage bin. He replied with a quick "Yeah." but on the inside, he felt like dying.

All because he was in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Total amount of words in this Chapter (Not including ending note): 3074
> 
> I've recently grown a soft spot of hanahaki disease fanfics but I haven't seen a lot of Hetalia hanahaki fanfics. They're all either one-shots or are just meh. So I've decided to take matters into my own hands.
> 
> Of course, this story is going to be based around Ameripan. It's my #1 OTP! So my apologies if you don't like the ship.
> 
> Little Fun Fact I Guess?: The hanahaki disease's origins are from Japan, so it's, of course, it's Kiku who falls victim. If you think about it, it makes sense and is quite logical.
> 
> By the way, you can find me on multiple fanfiction sites! I currently have a Wattpad account and a Fanfiction.net account.  
> Wattpad: SkylerSA  
> Fanfiction.net: SkylerSA  
> I currently have more works published on Wattpad as that's the site I started on, but I am currently reviewing many of them, so once I complete that I promise to post everything on there on to my other accounts! 
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading chapter 1 of 'Love Petals' and I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night where ever you are!


	2. Chapter 2 - Avoidance

Tears filled Kiku's eyes, thoughts of panic filling his mind. He was so scared. Flowers petals were literally coming out of his lungs and mouth, who wouldn't be? He became more panicked as Alfred loudly knocked on the door again. "Seriously, Kiku you good? You really don't sound okay." Kiku stood up straight, trying to quickly compose himself. "Y-Yes, I'm all right. Just felt like throwing up for a few minutes, but I'm okay now." He replied, only half-lying. "Okay then... Just meet me back in my room once you feel better."

Kiku sighed, staring at himself in the mirror, waiting a couple of minutes until he decided he looked like he didn't just experience the shock of coughing up flowers petals and left the restroom, walking back to Alfred's room, knocking before entering.

Alfred was on his bed playing flappy bird or something when Kiku entered the room. Kiku sat down on the bed and Alfred looked up from the sudden shift of weight on the mattress, causing him to die in his game. "Wha-? Oh, shoot!" He hastily mumbled, putting his phone down. "So um... What was that about? You seemed kind of panicked, you okay?" He seemed to have asked for the hundredth time.

'No...'

"Yeah, I'm all right. Just my stomach's a bit upset." Kiku lied, avoiding any eye contact with Alfred as he placed his left hand lightly over his stomach, pretending it hurt. Alfred shrugged lightly, picking up the TV remote. "M'kay, if you say so... So, you wanna continue with the movie?"

'No, I just want to go home. Away from you... Away from love...'

"Sure"

He closed his eyes and gently laid on a pillow. His stomach started to actually hurt.

~* * *~

Kiku must have fallen asleep during the remainder of the movie because when he opened his eyes, he was laying in the fetal position facing the TV. The screen was on the movies home menu, the cursor resting on 'Extras' section. Kiku sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He thought, maybe since he was sleeping, everything that happened was just a dream. But that was hopeful thinking.

That's when it hit him. He's fallen asleep. In Alfred's house. Oh god. He hoped he didn't disrespect him. He swiftly sat up and got off of Alfred's bed, leaving the bedroom. He heard the clinking of glass cups coming from the kitchen. Peeking his head around the doorway, he saw Alfred pour two glasses of water with ice cubes in it from a pitcher. He then grabbed two re-usable plastic straws and plopped them into the cup. With both glasses in hand, Alfred turned around and spotted Kiku watching from the doorway. Smiling, he walked over to Kiku and handed him a glass.

"You seemed to have fallen asleep during the movie. I didn't want to disturb you. You looked so peaceful... and kinda cute."

As Alfred winked after that little comment, Kiku almost choked on an ice cube, blush creeping up on to his cheeks. "A-Ah- Thank you? Er... I'm sorry for falling asleep during the movie..." Alfred smirked and waved his free hand dismissively. "Nah, it's fine really, I'm used to it. Mattie falls asleep during movies all the time. That is, unless its Disney, especially if it's Tangled."

"Oh, okay then..." Kiku said, unsure of what else to reply with. He quickly drank up the rest of his water and placed it on the counter. "Well, I think I should be going, it's getting kind of late." Grabbing his bag from the hook on the wall, he walked down the stairs to the doorway and put on his shoes. "Well alright then dude, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then at lunch or gym or something."

Waving, goodbye, Kiku quickly left the house and walked down the empty roads for around 15 minutes before arriving at his house. Unlocking the door, he walked inside, carefully slipping off his runners and putting on his slippers, walking down the hall to his bedroom. He assumed his parents were asleep and his older cousin was either asleep as well or out at a friends house to hang out or for a sleepover even though it was a school night and tomorrow was the second day of the school year.

Entering his room, he sat down on the bed and decided to check social media. Tapping on the Instagram app, he began scrolling through his feed. He was quickly scrolling past the shitposts that some of the people he was too lazy to unfollow posted.

He then checked his notifications and noticed he was tagged in a post and got a follower request, so he decided to check it out the post first. It was a photo Alfred had posted of him beside a sleeping Kiku. Alfred had his signature smile on and was looking at Kiku's sleeping form.

Kiku rolled his eyes and scrolled down a little to see the description and comments

*

Liked by thatonepasta123, ludwig_b03, the.awesome1_, 7large_baguette7, official.maple.king, frying_pan.wielder and 16 others

obviously.the.hero407 i was watching a horror movie with (a)miku_pizza0831, but he seems to have fallen asleep. he looks so peaceful when asleep... especially in comparison to u (a)official.maple.king :P  
#movienight

View all 6 comments

thatonepasta123 Awwwh~ so cute ;)  
frying_pan.wielder (a)thatonepasta123 Agreed~  
official.maple.king At least I don't snore like a troll like you. Also, it's good to see you hanging out with Kiku again.

Add a comment...

*

Kiku smiled like an idiot and was about to playfully comment how Alfred should have asked for permission to take a photo of him, nonetheless post it. Or ask how he got his account username, but in the end, decided not to do anything and simply liked the post, taking a screenshot as well. He then accepted Alfred's follow request.

Flopping down on to the pillows and pulling the cover a top himself, he turned off his phone and held it on his chest, staring at the ceiling. Face and stomach hot, blush still spread across his cheeks, he began to think of his evening with Alfred and smiled softly, his breathing becoming heavy.

He took a deep sigh, trying to even out his breathing, but only ending up breaking out in a coughing fit.

Oh, he'd forgotten.

Well, he forced himself to forget actually.

He coughed for a minute or so.

Once he was able to catch his breath once again and the coughing had slowed down, he grabbed a tissue and spit into it. Staring down at the tissue, his stomach dropped heavily. There were five sakura petals resting atop the tissue.

Kiku felt tears welling in his eyes as he crumpled the tissue into a ball and simply let it fall to the floor. Just as he was about to break down crying, he felt his phone vibrate on his stomach. He quickly dried his eyes and picked up the phone to see who was calling him at this hour.

Alfred. Of course it was Alfred. Kiku honestly hated how cliché his life had become lately.

Groaning, he simply waited it out instead of declining, hopefully, Alfred would think he was asleep. Soon the vibrating stopped... But then Alfred called again.

Becoming slightly aggravated, he placed his phone on the bedside table and sighed. After a couple more tries, Alfred seemed to have given up, and Kiku honestly started to feel bad for not answering. Maybe he should have answered after all. Maybe it was important or he was in trouble.

As he decided he shouldn't worry too much about it and positioned himself to be comfortable, his throat tickled a bit and he quickly cleared it out, he was in need of another tissue. He quickly spits into it, not even daring to look at what had come out from his throat. He already knew.

He let the tissue drop to the floor once again and it was at that moment when he realized that this year was going to be a very long one for him.

~* * *~

The next morning, Kiku woke up feeling groggy and his body felt like literal lead. Normally he was a morning bird but today he wanted to just melt into a puddle and stay in bed all day. As he curled into his blankets as if he was sushi or a roll of some sorts, his wishes of a lazy day were quickly shattered as his cousin Yao burst into his room by kicking open the door violently.

"Ai-yah!!! Wake up! Didn't you realize it's past 8:00?! You're going to be late if you don't get yourself in gear. Also, clean up the trash on your floor."

Kiku groaned. "Five more minutes please..." Yao rolled his eyes as he walked across Kiku's room and aggressively opened the curtains. "God, you're such a teenager."

As Yao was leaving the room, Kiku pathetically retorted "Well, you're only 2 years older than me, so, therefore, you're technically a teenager too."

Kiku tried closing his eyes again, but the light from the window didn't allow him to peacefully rest again. So, sighing in defeat, he unwrapped himself from the blanket and pulled his slippers on to his feet and groggily got out of bed.

As he sleepily rubbed his eyes, he grabbed his phone and checked for any new notifications. He mentally groaned when he saw 6 new text messages from Alfred about the movie disk he left at his house and possibly planning another hangout again.

Placing his phone on the table, he stared down at the floor and spotted the two crumpled tissues on the ground. He stomach twisted. He knew couldn't avoid the truth forever...

...But maybe he could try for a bit longer...

Sighing, he quickly grabbed the tissues on the ground and chucked them into the trash as he walked into the restroom to get ready for the day.

~

The bus came just as he was putting on his shoes and he began sprinting down the street to catch it.

Just as the bus was about to take off, Kiku quickly hopped on and went to sit on the first open seat he spotted, which happened to be right beside Matthew.

It took a few moments for Matthew to look up from his phone and notice Kiku, but when he did he almost jumped up from surprise.

"A-Ah! Sorry I didn't notice you there Kiku. It's actually quite a coincidence you sat beside me." Matthew quickly apologized and smiled softly at him. Kiku tilted his head a bit without meaning to. "Oh? How so?"

"Well, Alfred told me to give this to you if I saw you on the bus. You forgot it at our place." Matthew said as he pulled out Kiku's horror movie disk from his bag and promptly returned it to him.

"Oh, thank you. Alfred basically spammed me this morning telling me I forgot it." Kiku sighed with a smile. Matthew chuckled, "Yeah, he's like that." "And all over a disk too."

The two laughed and chatted about random things throughout the ride, as the bus was approaching the school, they were in the middle of ranting about some anime and they didn't stop until they got to the doors of the school.

"-Yeah! I mean, the animation wasn't the best quality in quick motion areas but the plot is good! It really does make up for the occasional blocky animation here and there." Kiku ranted. Matthew nodded.

"Mhm, I can agree with you on that one. But still, you can't quite blame them. It still made me cry, especially episode 10 and 11. Also aren't you excited about the movie?!"

"Extremely,"

"But then also-"

Before Matthew could continue talking, Gilbert suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tackled him to the floor. "Hey Birdie! We still up for tonight?!"

"Ack-! Gil! I was in the middle of a conversation with Kiku and yes! We're still going to the roller skating disco thing and being basic dorky teenagers! Now get off me, I-I can't breathe!" Matthew tried to wiggle out from underneath Gilbert but was failing miserably. Kiku was trying not to laugh.

"Oh, my bad, my bad." Gilbert quickly stood, pulling up Matthew by the hand after him. "Anyways that's great! Also hi Kiku, tell my brother to quiet down when with Feliciano, if you get what I mean." Gilbert waved and winked before quickly pulling Matthew away through the door.

"Eek! Alrighty then. I'll uh talk you later Kiku! ByyUu- Ah, Gilbert, calm dOOownN!! GIL! Ack- Okay bye!" Matthew quickly shouted to Kiku while getting basically dragged away by an overly hyper Gilbert. Once Matthew was out of sight, Kiku burst into laughter.

After calming down, Kiku wiped his eyes and continued into the school. Walking to his locker, he quickly placed his bag inside and grabbed the mandatory books for the first period which was Language Arts.

Just as he closed he locker and was about to head to class to be early, Feliciano had appeared out of nowhere and cheerfully greeted Kiku.

"Buongiorno Kiku! How are you today? I saw what Alfred posted on Instagram yesterday! Did you have fun?"

Kiku sighed and just stared blankly at the back of his locker before slightly shaking his head on facing Feliciano.

"Oh, uh, I'm doing just fine this morning, thank you... And yes, I did have fun yesterday, we watched a horror movie and played Mario Kart. But I did fall asleep as you probably saw online."

Before Feliciano could continue to ask about Kiku's time with Alfred, he quickly turned the conversation around. "How about you? How've you and Ludwig been? Gilbert says you guys are quite loud sometimes."

Kiku has a slight smirk on his face as Feliciano became red. "O-Oh! We're doing just fine thank you, I guess you could say things have been going great between us? I'll have to ask Gilbert to mind his own business though."

Kiku laughed and nodded. "All right. Well, I better get to... class..."

He suddenly felt his stomach drop and he had to put his hand over his mouth. He knew another round was coming.

"Ah-! Kiku are you all right?" Kiku hastily grabbed his books and closed his locker, locking it. "Mngh, sorry, I have to go. Talk to you later."

He quickly ran off to the restroom, making sure nobody was in there first before he quickly grabbed a paper towel and started coughing into it. About five minutes passed before the feeling of being unable to breath went away.

Like last time, he dared not to look into the paper towel and just crumpled up the paper, throwing it away and washing his hands. He picked up the books he had dropped beforehand and swiftly left the restroom and headed to class.

Sitting down at the desk he had chosen the day before. He set everything up, placing his book to his left and a loose leaf paper in front of him. He grabbed a pencil and eraser from inside the desk and pulled out his art book, beginning to sketch a drawing of two realistic cats.

One was fat and fluffy, with a light coat of fur that was slightly darker around the neck and the eyes or which were blue. The other cat was a bit thinner and had a shiny, black coat and dark chocolate brown eyes.

He continued to draw until the teacher came in and he had to stop. He slid the art book back into the desk and began to focus on the class.

Throughout the class, he kept on getting the feeling as though somebody was watching him, not wanting to miss any information though, he never truly bothered to look around until the end of the class.

He put his pencil down and looked at his surroundings and his classmates. He didn't spot anybody suspicious and he felt stupid for thinking that anyone was actually staring at him.

He grabbed his pencil and continued on with the work until he spotted in his peripheral vision the guy right beside him turn his head slightly and look at Kiku for a few moments before shaking his head and continue to do whatever he was doing.

Kiku wondered what that was about but chose to ignore it.

After about ten minutes go by and the bell rings. Kiku grabs his stuff and left the classroom, but not before he quickly looked at the guy beside him. He thought he recognized him from somewhere but could really put his finger on it. He simply shrugged and headed to the next class.

The rest of the morning remained pretty uneventful for the most part, but of course, when gym came around, Alfred approached Kiku.

"Uh, heya Keeks. I messaged you this morning to tell you that you forgot your disk at my house. Did Mattie return it to you?" Alfred scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Oh, yes, Matthew did return the disk to me this morning. Thank you."

"No problem dude. Anyways, I wanted to ask you ahead of time if you, you know, wanted to come to my 'Beginning of the Year' party! There'll be a ton of drinks, food and music! It's going to be awesome! And then we'll play party games, like truth or dare, spin the bottle and then maybe some hide and go seek in the dark! Yeah!"

Kiku sighed and sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry Alfred, I'd love to come but I'm afraid I'm quite busy this weekend and parties aren't really my things, please do forgive me."

Alfred frowned and his shoulders dropped slightly. "Are you sure? Could you please at least think about it?"

Kiku sighed. "Fine, I'll think about it okay?"

"All righty! Thanks bro."

And once again, the rest of the day went by pretty uneventful.

...

The rest of the week was basically a rinse and repeat process for Kiku.

Talk to one of his friends during this bus ride, go to English class and occasionally feel the guy beside him looking at him. Try to avoid Alfred as best as possible, and when Alfred approached to talk, try to cut off the conversation as soon as possible, and when invited to hang out or if he asked if he could come to the party simply decline or come up with an excuse, and occasionally go and cough up some petals.

Once the weekend rolled around, Kiku simply left all texts from Alfred unread and flopped on his bed. He wasn't sure if he could keep up with this all year.

The rest of the weekend went by mercilessly fast. He once went to visit his friend Heracles and his cats, but aside from that, nothing interesting happened.

When Monday came, Kiku mentally prepared himself during the bus ride to school. He was hoping after a certain amount of time Alfred would get the hint and buzz off.

Getting off the bus and entering the school, he did his daily routine and placed his bag inside his locker, only grabbing the books he needed for class and avoided all unnecessary human contact.

He was successful with doing so until lunch when he sat down at his table after greeting his group of friends. He put some earbuds in his ear and pretended to be listening to music, signalling he didn't want to be bothered, and silently ate his lunch while tuning in and out of the others conversation. That is until the topic of the beginning of the year party at Alfred's house had popped up.

Kiku quietly listened as the others talked about the dancing, the overly extra decorations, the food, the drinks and the activities. One of those activities consisted of Truth or Dare.

Kiku noticed from his peripheral vision that the others glance at him for a moment as if checking to see if Kiku was truly listening or not and quickly went back to talking, but in a lower volume.

He clenched his jaw and moved his mouth in a chewing manner, re-adjusting the earbud to loosen from his ear a bit so he could hear them better.

"-And during truth or dare, it was crazy how Alfred's cousin, Arthur, who was a little drunk, basically confessed to having a crush on 'some timid Japanese kid', obviously talking about Kiku."

...

Oh? He knew he recognized the guy beside him from somewhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Total amount of words in this Chapter (Not including ending note): 3424
> 
> Honestly, I find it kind of funny because this book was originally supposed to be a love triangle, but then it became a love square for reasons that have not been touched yet in this book. (It'll be obvious in chapter 5-6) But now that Arthur has entered the game it became a love hexagon. (Guess who the 6th person/Person3 is... It's kinda obvious but still.) So there's a little something to keep y'all interested.
> 
> Basically, the love hexagon goes like this.
> 
> Person1 kind of likes *Person2, *Person2 really likes Person1 and is slowly losing interest in Alfred. Kiku obviously has a huge crush on Alfred and Arthur likes Kiku while Person3 likes Arthur.
> 
> *Person2 = Alfred's boyfriend.
> 
> It may seem crazy, but you have to remember that this is a fanfiction and that everything will all come together in the end. And that's all the spoilers you may be getting for a long time..
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading chapter 2 of 'Love Petals' and I hope you have a wonderful day and/or night where ever you are!


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